Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 28
  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    right behind you!
    Posts
    5,201

    Berthoud Pass lodge comes down

    http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2798430



    Berthoud Pass ski lodge torn down
    Many see the building's fall as a tragedy.
    But the Forest Service hails a new era for the scenic area.

    By Jason Blevins
    Denver Post Staff Writer



    Berthoud Pass - Snow dusted the venerable Berthoud Pass ski lodge Friday, the last flakes that will ever fall on the creaking old dame of Colorado ski lodges.

    That day demolition crews razed the 30,000-square-foot lodge that sheltered skiers at Colorado's oldest ski area for 56 years. The heydays of "The Pass" have passed.

    "It was a huge piece of Colorado history that did not have to come down," said an irate Ike Garst, who in the 1980s ran the Berthoud Pass ski area with his wife, Lucy. They made history as the country's first resort owners to embrace snowboarders.

    "It was a very viable operation when we had it, and it could have been again," Garst said. "This is a tragedy."

    Where Garst and many Berthoud Pass lovers see the lodge's fall as the end of an era, Forest Service officials see the dawning of a new era on the mountain pass 50 miles west of Denver that first hosted skiers with a V-8-powered rope tow in 1937.

    "The easy thing would have been to keep things as they were, but things were not working out," said Daniel Lovato, district ranger for the Arapaho National Forest. "It was time for a change. We can't turn back the clock on this one. We see this as a new beginning."

    The Forest Service is using an $800,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to build a small structure, bathrooms, two scenic vistas, parking spaces for 125 cars and an interpretive trailhead monument for the Continental Divide Trail, which splices the 11,000-foot pass.

    Emotions have run high as the Forest Service wrestled with options. The ski area's owner, Grand County developer Marise Cipriani, shuttered the ski operation in 2001, citing financial struggles. She ran a Sno-Cat skiing operation for two more seasons, but the cost of keeping the sewer-troubled lodge open was too high.

    Cipriani removed the lifts in 2003. Since then, the Forest Service has weighed its options for the lodge, which sat on public land.

    Several buyers - including Ike Garst - came forward with plans to revive skiing and commercial activities atop the pass. Ultimately the Forest Service decided that the demand for skiing had dwindled to such a point that a viable ski operation at Berthoud Pass was too risky for public land.

    The Forest Service's plans include a small parcel for future development - enough room for a 5,000-square-foot structure - but the official verdict is that no commercial operations will be allowed on the pass.

    Designs also include a pedestrian walkway over the highway, and the Forest Service is negotiating with the Colorado Department of Transportation for funding to build it. Local Forest

    Service officials gave Cipriani until July 1 to remove all structures at the former ski area.
    "Our thing is to bring it back to the way it was 100 years ago," said Jim Gochis, co-owner of Arvada-based Alpine Demolition, which is razing and recycling the lodge as well as planting native grasses to hide any scars.

    As CDOT crews finish a major overhaul of the once-intimidating U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass, developers are pumping $1 billion into new projects in the exploding Grand County on its north side.

    At the same time, residents in the economically fragile Clear Creek County communities on the south side say they will mourn the tourist attraction.

    "I feel the Forest Service's plan is very inadequate, both for their own needs and our community needs," said Peggy Stokstad, president and CEO of the Clear Creek Economic Development Corp. "I sort of take this personally."

    She urged the Forest Service to consider courting one of the suitors vying for a chance to host paying visitors on the pass.

    Instead, she said, "The Forest Service is telling us that what is important and valuable to our community are bathrooms and some kind of monument. It is so sad."

    Even with the lodge shuttered, thousands of skiers have flocked to the snowy chutes flanking Berthoud Pass every season. They have been using the pass much like their forebears did six decades ago - hike up, ski down, and hitch a ride.

    "It's ironic after decades of innovation in the ski industry that we're skiing the pass the same way our contemporaries did in the 1930s," said Shan Sethna, executive director of the Friends of Berthoud Pass, a nonprofit group that lobbies the Forest Service to protect winter recreation at the pass.

    "The lodge represents a chapter of Colorado ski history that we are sad to see end, but we are excited about any future projects which will preserve and enhance safe access for all users of Berthoud Pass," he said.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    North Coast
    Posts
    2,616
    Well, thank god there'll be an interpretive trailhead monument.
    It's idomatic, beatch.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    The Garden State
    Posts
    4,735
    Nicely worded mr. director.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Babylon
    Posts
    13,450
    except he said "contemporaries" when he meant predecessors.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    On your right
    Posts
    37
    The lodge was not needed. A comercial operation, w/ Winter Park being right down the pass, would not work, plus it's not wanted. The pass is a great backcountry intro site. Like a hooker, it has easy access. With both moderate & hard core lines it welcomes all skill levels. The lodge has not been open to us BC scum for years so screw'em. With the growing popularity of the pass they needed to do something about parking anyway & a walk-over would melo out the dash over busy Hwy 40 for humans & dogs. Plus the old lodge was haunted... has any1 given any thought to the homless dead dude?? NO?... harsh.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    8,714
    Quote Originally Posted by dork69
    ... has any1 given any thought to the homless dead dude?? NO?... harsh.
    A little help! Fill me in, I've been in and around the lodge for the past 10yrs. I'm aware that many people think its hauted but I've never heard anything about a homeless dead dude. Drop the knowledge.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    CO
    Posts
    5,017
    Quote Originally Posted by dork69
    Plus the old lodge was haunted... has any1 given any thought to the homless dead dude?? NO?... harsh.
    Interesting. Care to elaborate? I always heard little bits and pieces of the lodge being haunted, but nothing more than small talk. Something to do with the Japanese tunnel workers?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    New Haven Line heading north
    Posts
    2,944
    If a homeless person's ghost haunts only one building, can said ghost be considered homeless?
    Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    On your right
    Posts
    37
    I don't know Stu Gotz, I have seen Ghostbusters many times and those dead dudes seemed to roam quite a bit, hence the containment unit. That was a documentry... right? As to the story behind the ghost, I don't have any real info. I've just heard people talk about it before... I believe everything I hear. Does any1 know the story? Who should we call??

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    2,071
    Quote Originally Posted by iskibc
    Something to do with the Japanese tunnel workers?
    The what?
    "True love is much easier to find with a helicopter"

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Babylon
    Posts
    13,450
    Quote Originally Posted by Hacksaw
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iskibc
    Something to do with the Japanese tunnel workers?


    The what?
    hes got an anal Asian fetish, dont mind him

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    right behind you!
    Posts
    5,201
    pfft...

    There's a secret tunnel from the top of Berthoud Pass that goes straight to Tokyo. I thought everyone knew that.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    8,714
    Ignant bitches! He's talking about the internment camp labor used to build the Big Thompson Project in the 40s. Yep, the aquaduct was build by slaves.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Dtown/Gtown
    Posts
    3,413
    What would a homeless dude be doing at the top of Berthoud Pass?
    Was he hitchiking across the country and said "Hey... the continental divide would be a sweet place to panhandle... drop me here".

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    CO
    Posts
    5,017
    Quote Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
    Ignant bitches! He's talking about the internment camp labor used to build the Big Thompson Project in the 40s. Yep, the aquaduct was build by slaves.
    Yeah, you ignant bitches!


    I got talking to one of the weather station employees earlier this year when they were digging up the parking lot. We got into a conversation about how they used to bring over Japanese slaves in the mid 1900s to work on digging a tunnel across the divide to divert water from one side to the other. He said there were a lot of deaths during the construction and supposedly they buried the slaves where the current lot stands. That's why I was wondering if the hauntings had anything to do with this story.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    8,714
    Quote Originally Posted by iskibc
    Japanese slaves
    Those slaves were actually Americans. No big deal, just a small party of 20th century history.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Stuck in perpetual Meh
    Posts
    35,247
    Quote Originally Posted by Woodsy
    except he said "contemporaries" when he meant predecessors.
    Quote Originally Posted by dictionary.com
    Usage Note: When contemporary is used in reference to something in the past, its meaning is not always clear. Contemporary critics of Shakespeare may mean critics in his time or critics in our time. When the context does not make the meaning clear, misunderstanding can be avoided by using phrases such as critics in Shakespeare's time or modern critics.
    I agree, they should have edited his soundbite better.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    right behind you!
    Posts
    5,201
    Forgive my illiteracy and thank you for focusing on the larger issue of preserving the legacy of recreation at the Pass.

    Jerks.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Stuck in perpetual Meh
    Posts
    35,247
    Huh? Preserving WHAT?

  20. #20
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    right behind you!
    Posts
    5,201
    c'mere fokker... I'll preserve my fist right down yer throat, I will...

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    North Coast
    Posts
    2,616
    Quote Originally Posted by Pinner
    Forgive my illiteracy and thank you for focusing on the larger issue of preserving the legacy of recreation at the Pass.

    Jerks.
    Yeah. Issues like dead asian guys.

    And the interpretive trailhead monument. Maybe the monument will interpret what the Japanese-American slaves were saying as they hacked through the divide so BoulDenver could have more clean water.

    Foggy- I've got a Big Thompson for you.
    It's idomatic, beatch.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    right behind you!
    Posts
    5,201
    Quote Originally Posted by Cornholio
    Foggy- I've got a Big Thompson for you.





    That's interesting about the Big Tommy project. I had no idea. The Pass really does have a ton of very unique history, eh?

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    8,714
    Quote Originally Posted by Cornholio
    Foggy- I've got a Big Thompson for you.
    Cleveland, don't make me kick your ass too. FYI, I spend Mem. day in Howard Colorado looking at the Sangre's, thought you'd like to know.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    2,071
    Quote Originally Posted by Woodsy
    hes got an anal Asian fetish, dont mind him
    Oh, got'ca..
    "True love is much easier to find with a helicopter"

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    8,714
    Razing Berthoud history
    by Chance Conner
    As the claws of death from Alpine Demolition crunched into the walls of the doomed Berthoud Pass Ski Lodge last week, John Bustos of the U.S. Forest Service spoke softly into his walkie-talkie.
    “The building has left Elvis,” Bustos said to his USFS colleagues.
    Within 30 minutes, nearly one-third of the historic lodge, besieged by poor management, underfinanced owners and a ski market in which it could no longer compete, was rubble.
    By the end of the day June 9, it was razed to make way for the development and construction of a trailhead to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, an interpretation facility and a visitor plaza. An $800,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado is funding the project. The demolition was the first step in current owner SolVista’s request to end its special use permit with the USFS to operate Berthoud Pass Ski Area.
    The remaining infrastructure at Berthoud — septic tanks, foundations, lift tower footers, a garage and a USFS cabin — also will be demolished and hauled away over the next two weeks. Soil contaminated by gasoline and diesel fuel also must be removed from nearby soil.
    Asbestos inside the 30,000-square-foot building had been removed prior to the permit being issued for demolition, which will cost SolVista more than $100,000.
    As Alpine Demolition of Arvada began its attack on the 1940s relic shortly after 9 a.m., about a dozen people stood by watching and snapping photographs. Nostalgia and deep sentiment ran strong among those observers, including Sally Guanella Buckland of Empire. Guanella Pass was named after her family, longtime Colorado ranchers and gold miners. “I am very sad about this,” Buckland said. “I am very dismayed the Forest Service decided to remove this historic place. We’ve been trying to preserve this building but they (the USFS) said it doesn’t have any historic value.. No historic value? The stagecoach used to stop here.”
    Dan Lovato of the Forest Service was on hand for the demolition and displayed an artist’s rendition of the future plans and design for the proposed trailhead and visitor plaza.. He did his best to assuage Buckland, her sister Glenda Guanella, and JoAnn Sorensen, a former Clear Creek commissioner.
    Despite the fact the lodge was situated in Grand County — the ski runs and sewage system fell into Clear Creek County —— the Clear Creek Board of Commissioners lobbied hard in a September 2003 letter to SolVista to keep Berthoud Pass Lodge standing.
    “We were sad when SolVista pulled away and decided it no longer wished to operate the ski area,” Lovato said. “This place is a big piece of Colorado history.”
    Two buildings on the site caught fire and burned down prior to the 1949 opening of the current lodge being torn down. The estimated cost of repairing the roof, interior conditions, electrical and water systems was about $200,000. Annual maintenance of the structure was estimated as high as $100,000 — the same cost as its demolition.
    “It had become too expensive to maintain,” said Charlie Mayfield, an official of Granby Ranch developers, which also owns SolVista.
    Granby Ranch and SolVista owner Marise Cipriani closed the Berthoud Pass Ski Area in 2003. Demolition of the lodge was delayed because the city of Northglenn took longer than expected to repair water-diversion equipment buried beneath the ski area parking lot.
    Cipriani was one of eight owners of Berthoud over 68 years, all of whom lost money. Berthoud is the latest in a string of Clear Creek County ski areas to die, including Geneva Basin, Squaw Pass and St. Mary’s Glacier.
    There was ample and loud public support for a replacement facility to be built on the site. The new lodge would have been much smaller, selling food and drinks, and open only during the day.
    But three organizations pushing for the new lodge weren’t able to open it for at least two years. And the Forest Service felt it had run out of time.
    Jim Bedwell is the forest supervisor for the Arapahoe and Roosevelt nationals forests. Although he has some pangs of nostalgia for the 65-year-old lodge, he believes it is time for an era to end.
    “It’s time to move to the future,” Bedwell said. “We will capture the essence of this lodge and the rest of the ski area in photographs that will be displayed at the new interpretation facility. We will have an extensive history of this place on hand.”
    A handicap-accessible trailhead to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail is being designed, with construction to begin next summer. Bedwell said he expects it to be open by the summer of 2007.
    A small building, to scenic overlooks and parking spaces for 125 vehicles will be built, too.
    The famous Berthoud Pass Continental Divide sign that sits in the middle of the parking lot will be moved to a more photogenic site nearby, Bedwell said.
    “It will have a more dramatic backdrop, a more scenic overlook,” he said.
    In the winter, the site will continue to serve backcountry skiers and snowboarders, as it has in the past. Funding for the new project includes US Department of Agriculture Forest Service money and a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, awarded last year.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •